The niche and paratextual industries of games and play

BCM300 – Blog Post 5

This week we began the development of our individual game design. We started by brainstorming under pressure, creating 10 names of potential games within a minute. I found this really hard to do: it’s difficult coming up with 10 game ideas, but with the added pressure of a deadline, it was even more difficult. I did, however, come up with a simple title that could lead to a game if I can develop more of a story to it.

‘30 seconds to Mars’ was one of the names I came up with. The names of a popular band, but could it also be a successful board game? The premise is that the players have to build a ship that can survive the flight from Earth to Mars. With the time limit in place I just jotted it down without giving it a second thought. Once we had finished we were…